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Emma and Max

Illustration by Zohar Lazar

Todd Solondz’s first film, from 1989, was called “Fear, Anxiety & Depression,” which should have told us what would follow: pitch-dark comedies of discomfort, including “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” “Happiness,” and “Palindromes,” which drew bilious laughs from such subjects as puberty, masturbation, and pedophilia. In that early film, Solondz himself starred as a misery-addicted playwright, but his real-life playwriting début has been a longer time coming. His first play, “Emma and Max” (starting previews on Oct. 1, at the Flea), is billed as “a satire of tragic dimensions” and portrays the quotidian agonies of a cross-section of New Yorkers. Solondz also directs.